An arpeggio (Italian: [arˈpeddʒo]) or "broken chord" is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than playing (or singing, as with multiple singers in a choir) all of the notes simultaneously. Playing or singing all of the notes of a chord at the same time is the default approach to performing a chord. Even though the notes of an arpeggio are not played or sung all together at the same time, listeners hear the sequence of notes as forming a chord. When an arpeggio also contains passing tones that are not part of the chord, different music theorists may analyze the same musical excerpt differently.